The goal of the Brown University BIRCWH Career Development Program is to promote the performance of interdisciplinary research and transfer of findings that will benefit the health of women through the development of well-qualified women's health investigators. The program will achieve this goal by accomplishing the following objectives: (1) Provide each Interdisciplinary Women's Health Research scholar with a curriculum tailored to his/her scientific research development needs and interests. Courses will be offered in statistical methods, research design, conduct of research, women's health and gender issues, pathobiology, scientific publishing, grant writing, and additional "tools" necessary to become a successful independent investigator in women's health; (2) Provide each scholar with an intensive exposure to interdisciplinary women's health research and a suitable mentor who can provide the guidance and expertise to assure successful academic development; (3) Provide the research infrastructure (laboratory and research assistants, methodologists, data managers, and statistical support) and adequate protected time to create an environment conducive to investigation into women's health. The program will take advantage of the existing strengths of the Departments of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry, and Community Health at Brown University, Brown Medical School and its affiliated hospitals, Women & Infants Hospital Division of Research and George Anderson Outcomes Measurement Unit, the Woods Hole Marie Biological Laboratory, the National Perinatal Information Center, and the Cancer Prevention Research Center at the University of Rhode Island. Potential research projects focus in the following five major areas with applications in women's health: (1) Prevention and Behavior Change; (2) Gender Issues in Women's Health; (3) Health Services Research, Epidemiology and Biostatistics; (4) HIV and AIDS in Women; and (5) Obstetric and Gynecologic Research, including perinatal diagnosis and management, screening in early pregnancy, translational immunology, and developmental biology and cell dynamics. This interdisciplinary and cross-institutional program will provide a new cadre of academic investigators who will further the scientific database and improved the health status of women.